Flowers for La Grande, OR

La Grande owes its shape to the wagons that could not climb straight over the Blue Mountains. The Oregon Trail dropped into the Grande Ronde Valley here, and the town that grew on the valley floor became Union County's college seat and rail stop — Eastern Oregon University on the west hill, the Union Pacific line splitting the middle, and a compact grid of tree-streets between them. Flower delivery in this basin is a valley errand more than a city one. In-town orders cross a few blocks to campus, to the neighborhoods off Adams Avenue, or up Sunset Drive to Grande Ronde Hospital; the rest fan out across hayfields and cattle ground toward Island City, Cove tucked under Mount Fanny, Union to the south, and Elgin at the mouth of the Wallowa canyon. The season sets the tempo — EOU graduation in June clears the coolers, homecoming and the county fair spike the fall, and a hard winter can put the passes over the edge of the map for a day.

Other Oregon cities.